Thursday, February 8, 2018

Mercenary Kings Reloaded Edition Review (PS4)

With great sprite graphics, an awesome retro soundtrack, and
satisfying arcade-style run and gun gameplay – Mercenary Kings has pretty much
everything oldschool 2D action shooter fans could ask for. Part Metal Slug, part
Metal Gear, Mercenary Kings wears its inspirations on its sleeve but turns it
all into a very fun and satisfying whole. Continue reading our full review of
Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition for all of the details.

History lesson time. Mercenary Kings originally launched on
PS4 in April 2014. Nearly four years later it has been given a “Reloaded
Edition” update and, more importantly, is available on Xbox One and Nintendo
Switch for the first time. If you already own the PS4 version the game will
update to the Reloaded Edition for free. The Reloaded Edition adds two new
characters, some extra missions, more custom weapons, and some quality of life
and performance improvements. Xbox One and Switch owners get the best version
of the game, the Reloaded Edition release, right off the bat, so I guess your
patience has been rewarded.

Mercenary Kings is a 2D side scrolling shooter / platformer
that looks and feels an awful lot like the Metal Slug series, but there are
quite a few key differences. The gameplay generally isn’t as hectic as Metal
Slug, for one, as the game typically doesn’t throw a ton of enemies at you at
once. There are several enemy types, each with different weaknesses and
patterns, and carefully and calmly ducking to avoid shots and then popping up
to fire when the time is right is generally the name of the game here rather
than wildly running and gunning. Mercenary Kings isn’t a linear left to right
shooter, either, as the levels are large and open and meant to be explored.
You’ll need to thoroughly explore, too, in order to find materials to use in
the game’s extensive crafting system.

I know, I know, “crafting system” is almost a bad word these
days as far too many games implement clumsy crafting mechanics, but Mercenary
Kings does a good job with it. You are able to Frankenstein a bunch of
different gun parts together in order to create fully customized weapons with
unique attributes and it is pretty crazy how powerful you can get by the end of
the game. You also have a customizable melee weapon, too, that can be anything
from a normal knife to a pizza cutter, plunger, fish, and much more. You also
use your collected materials to upgrade your armor (to give you more HP) and
can build body mods that make you more lucky (to find more materials), recharge
HP faster, and much more. The crafting and customization is a well done and
surprisingly addictive carrot that keeps you coming back in Mercenary Kings.
One key addition in the Reloaded Edition is the ability to simply buy rare
materials if you missed picking them up in a previous mission, which is a huge
help and means you don’t have to replay missions over and over to grind
materials quite as much as you did in the vanilla game.

Something else that sets Mercenary Kings apart is its health
system and radio transceiver. You can actually take quite a few hits in
Mercenary Kings, but when you run low on health you need to either use a med
kit or ration item, or wait it out in an infirmary building (the enemies let
you use their medical supplies, I guess) where you health will slowly refill.
When you’re in a pinch you can also use your radio to talk to your allies at
base camp, Metal Gear Solid-style, who can help you with what to do next,
teleport you back to the beginning area of the map, or even drop health kits
and other supplies when you need them. Getting help like this can only be done
a handful of times per mission, however, so you have to use it wisely.

My only real complaint with Mercenary Kings is that the
missions get pretty repetitive fairly fast. Even though your mission objectives
may vary from killing specific enemies to beating a boss or simply collecting
items, they all end up feeling pretty much the same. There are only a handful
of maps to explore and backtracking back and forth across them over and over
and over again gets old pretty quickly. Re-playing missions with different
weapons or taking different paths through the level or attempting speed runs do
give it some variety, but generally speaking the missions are pretty repetitive.

With that said, however, the game definitely does ratchet up
and get more interesting the deeper into it you get. The enemies get more
varied, certainly, and the customization options you have keep getting more and
more wild. It takes quite a while to get there, though, as Mercenary Kings is
kind of ridiculously huge. There are well over 100 missions in the game – each
one takes between 5-30 minutes to complete – so there is a ton to do here. Your
first several hours are kind of a slog, but once you break through things get
better. I definitely wish there were more maps and more mission variety,
though.

You can play through the game solo or in up to four person
co-op, either online or locally. Co-op is a total blast and definitely the
recommended way to play. The game costs $20, which seems somewhat steep
(especially since the game has been on sale pretty much constantly on PSN) but
you do get a ton of content and dozens of hours of playtime for the price.

The presentation in Mercenary Kings is very, very appealing
with very sharp and attractive pixel art that looks fantastic. The sound is
also very well done with great oldschool arcade shooter effects and a
phenomenal soundtrack.

Overall, Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition is a pretty
fantastic 2D arcade shooter throwback that is pretty easy to recommend. It does
stumble a bit with repetitive mission design, but the core gameplay is solid,
the co-op is great, the customization is addictive, and the presentation is
pure oldschool bliss. Mercenary Kings: Reloaded Edition is a ton of fun. Buy
it.